Abstract
The transformation of today's chemical industry into a sustainable and robust economic sector is a major challenge for the upcoming decades. This includes the development of automated test stands for R&D and QM. Unfortunately, reliability and scalability of performance data from catalytic tests are limited. In a field of rising complexity, a proper quantification of precision and correctness is important, not only to assess the quality of test results, but also to understand the complex interference of different process parameters (ϑ, p, flow) together with the chemical reaction network. Based on the development of two fixed bed catalyst test rigs with different scales, both for methanol- and ethanol-to-hydrocarbons processes, methods to quantify statistical errors and to analyze origins of deviations are discussed. Summarized core experiences help to prevent down-time as well as mis- or over-interpretation of test results.